Bryse Wilson may not have been the most exciting offseason addition for White Sox fans, but he is set to play a key role on the pitching staff in 2025.
The White Sox inked Wilson to a one-year deal worth $1.05 million with an additional $250,000 in potential performance bonuses. He will have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the White Sox rotation, which is exactly what he intends to do. During an appearance on MLB Network Radio Wilson said his goal to make 32 starts in the White Sox rotation next season.
“I'm just looking forward to reestablishing myself as a starter and, you know, kind of taking over a little bit of a leadership role in whatever way needed,” Wilson said. “Just kind of take just the experience that I have helping some of these other guys.”
The White Sox have a handful of young starters vying for a place in the rotation. Because of this, the roster needed an arm to help eat innings and take the stress off of a bullpen that was heavily taxed last season. Chris Flexen played the role of innings eater last season. Wilson is arguably an upgrade over Flexen.
The 26-year-old owns a career 4.61 ERA in 413.2 innings, spread across seven MLB seasons. Last season he tossed 104.2 innings for the Brewers and posted a 4.04 earned run average. However, only nine of his 34 appearances were as a starter.
“Being kind of in that long reliever role and making the starts that I made last year, I think a lot of what I want to do, my goals for this season is to be in the rotation all year and make 32 starts and go out and just show that I can cover a lot of innings and put up the numbers as well.”
Wilson doesn’t draw many whiffs, with just a 17.1 percent career strikeout rate. However, he makes up for it with his command of the strike zone. His career 7.4 percent walk rate is below the major league average. In 2023 he managed to limit opponents to a .211 batting average en route to a career-best 2.58 ERA. This past season Wilson did have a bit of luck on his side. His expected ERA was 5.35 due to a hard-hit percentage of 44.3 which was amongst the worst in baseball.
Wilson has a five-pitch mix that includes a cutter, sinker, four-seam fastball, curveball, and changeup. His fastball run value was amongst the best in baseball last year, despite topping out at 94 mph. If Wilson doesn’t crack the rotation he can still be an impactful piece out of the White Sox bullpen in a role similar to Michael Soroka’s late last season.
The White Sox serves as the perfect opportunity for him to revitalize his career and take on an expanded role he may not have gotten on a contender like Milwaukee. Despite coming off a 121-loss season, Wilson remained optimistic the White Sox can turn the corner in 2025.
“A lot of those young guys, there's only things to learn from experiences like that. I know they never want to be in a situation like that again. So, just taking from that, you know, whether it gives you a chip on your shoulder or just extra motivation going forward. Whatever it may be,” Wilson told MLB Network Radio. “ I think they're putting ourselves in the right situation, whether it comes to the roster or the coaching staff and, you know, definitely, looking up from here on out.”
